Stevens Restarts His U.S. Career After a Ride Through England

Ahmed Salman, the Saudi Arabian prince and the force behind the Thoroughbred Corp.’s world-wide racing stable, was talking about jockey Gary Stevens.

“He’s a jockey, he’s an athlete, he’s a gentleman and he’s very smart,” Salman said. “Gary Stevens doesn’t need me to say how good he is.”

For a princely sum--part of a long-term contract that includes a managerial job with Thoroughbred Corp. after he retires from the saddle--the nomadic Stevens was lured back to the U.S. by Salman for what is expected to be the final move in a long, distinguished riding career.

In June, Stevens took off for England to become the stable jockey for Sir Michael Stoute, one of the leading British trainers. Stevens’ deal with Stoute was open-ended; he would test the territory and then decide, but theoretically it might have lasted for a long time. Next year, in particular, Stoute is likely to have an especially potent stable, based on the young horses that Stevens was introduced to this season.

But last month, while Stevens was riding at the Goodwood meet in England, he took a call from Richard Mulhall, the California-based general manager for Salman’s racing interests.

“I was shocked and confused,” Stevens said. “I had talked about riding for Thoroughbred Corp. a couple of years ago [when he was still in California], but we couldn’t agree to terms. This time, we were able to get together.”

It was difficult for Stevens to tell Stoute that he was leaving. The jockey had won more than 40 races in Europe, winning at an excellent 22% clip, and he was third on the English money list, behind Kieren Fallon and Frankie Dettori.

“I felt that I let Sir Michael down,” Stevens said. “I had mixed emotions about leaving. I knew he stuck his neck out in bringing me over.”

Stevens, 36, is the son of a trainer. He was grooming horses for his father in his native Idaho at 8, riding quarter horses by 14 and winning races on thoroughbreds two years later. The first time around in California, when he was still a teenager, Stevens won with only four of 90 mounts, but he returned in 1984, got a kick-start from trainer Laz Barrera and has gone on to accomplishments that culminated with an election into the Racing Hall of Fame in 1997. Stevens has won almost 4,500 races and his mounts have earned more than $180 million.

“It was my idea to hire Gary,” said Salman, who is only five years older than Stevens. “He had already won races for me everywhere--here, in Saudi Arabia, in England, in Canada.”

Salman’s goal is to build a racing empire comparable to the Godolphin Stables of Dubai, which have dominated European racing with an eye to future conquests in the U.S.

Stevens’ fast getaway from England, where he had impressed horsemen with his riding skills and enthralled journalists with articulate interviews, brought a bittersweet response. At the start, Stevens said he had left the U.S. partly because of boredom, something Rodney Masters addressed in his farewell column in England’s Racing Post:

“Historically, money is the unrivaled antidote to boredom. . . . If, back in the U.S., Stevens is concerned about continuously riding around left-handed turns, he can always keep his wallet in his right-hand pocket.”

In the same piece, Masters set aside his cynicism to say:

“Stevens will be long remembered in Europe with the same respect and fondness we continue to have for Steve Cauthen. They are both a credit to their country and their profession.”

Last week, Stevens traveled through 14 time zones in a couple of days to successfully resume riding in the United States. After flying from London to his home near Los Angeles, he was back on a plane to New York, where he won with the first mount he had that day at Saratoga. The next afternoon, he clicked with a first-race mount at Del Mar.

That is the way it will be, handling first-call chores for Salman and Mulhall, and taking outside mounts when the Thoroughbred Corp. doesn’t have a horse in a race.

Today, Stevens rides Sapphire Ring in the $400,000 Ramona Handicap here. On Sunday, he’ll be aboard Crafty Friend in the $250,000 Forego Stakes at Saratoga. Next Saturday, Stevens will be in Ireland, to ride Royal Anthem in the Irish Championship Stakes. But there will be occasional gaps in the Thoroughbred Corp.’s racing program, and all the money in Saudi Arabia won’t make Stevens and his agent, Ron Anderson, forget trainer Bob Baffert’s barn phone number.

“I learned a lot while I was in England,” Stevens said. “One day you might be riding on a course that turned right, then the next day you might be on a course that turned left. You might be riding on an up-and-down course with 35 horses in the race. Sometimes it felt like trying to go 110 mph on the Hollywood Freeway at 5 p.m.

“It was the best experience I’ve had since I started riding, but it also gave a new respect for how good we have it back here. I had lost touch with the really, really good things I’d grown to love here, and now I’m back to enjoy them.”

Horse Racing Notes

Tranquility is 2-1 and Tuzla is 5-2 on the morning line for today’s Ramona Handicap. . . . Prime Timber, sidelined because of a bruised foot after running fourth at the Kentucky Derby, returned Friday night to run fourth in a five-horse field at Del Mar. . . . Bob Baffert, who trains Prime Timber, won Del Mar’s El Cajon Stakes with National Saint. . . . Real Connection, trainer Mel Stute’s one-eyed mare, died this week in San Miguel, Calif., where she was a broodmare. Real Connection, an 8-year-old, suffered from a stomach ulcer.